March 10, 2008
Rob Clark was on Kick This! on Saturday to talk about Adirondack Sports Club LLC's bid to purchase the Rhinos and control PAETEC Park.
Adirondack Bank first thought about taking control of the team and the stadium 13 days ago when it was looking like they would be unable to recoup the $2.1 million that they loaned to help get PAETEC Park built.
So, the bank looked into gaining control of the team and the stadium as a way to get some sort of return on their investment into the project.
Mr. Clark has experience overseeing loans to sports teams, but his family's experience in the business of operating a sports team is limited to his father owning the minor league hockey team the Clinton Comets over 30 years ago.
Mr. Clark is expecting to be in Rochester today or tomorrow to try and wrap up a lease deal with the City of Rochester. The USL has also said that they have yet to transfer ownership of the USL franchise from the current ownership group.
Both Mr. Clark and Soccer Sam believe that a deal needs to happen this week to save the 2008 season.
And if you are wondering where Sam's 911 Group is right now, there has been a major twist over the past 24 hours or so. Sam had a long discussion with Mr. Clark yesterday and his group is looking into the possibility that his group could own and operate the Rhinos franchise and he talked about it on TV today. Many in the Rochester community believe that Sam's group has a better mix of connections within the Rochester community, along with Sam's experience with the Rhinos and pro soccer in general, than Mr. Clark. The collaboration of the Adirondack Sports Club LLC and Saving Soccer LLC would provide the best answer on many fronts, in my opinion.
But, as has been the case with this story all along, we are going to have to wait and see if all the needed deals get done.....................
News & Notes:
- Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan is on the shelf with a knee injury.
- The US U-23 Olympic Qualifying roster is set. Bennie Feilhaber and Robbie Rogers were cut from the squad and Jonathon Spector was added to the team. And SBI.net gives Ives' Starting XI.
- Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer.com has a really nice piece on the U-23s ahead of qualifying.
- The Kansas City Wizards are about to announce that Claudio Lopez has been signed as a DP. Can Lopez replace the goals that KC lost with Eddie Johnson moving to Fulham?
- Liverpool is not owned purely by Americans anymore.........
- The Carolina RailHawks have signed local boy Steven Curfman who was with Real Salt Lake in 2007.
- Anson Dorrance and Huge Perez will be the 2008 Class of the US Soccer Hall of Fame. Dorrance topped Bruce Arena by 3 votes in the Builder Category and Perez beat out Kyle Rote, Jr. in the Veteran Player Category. All the players on the ballot failed to reach the 75% level needed for election with Preki topping the list with just under 68%. Former USWNT defender Joy Fawcett was just behind Preki at 67.19%.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the Rochester Rhinos or SoccerSam.com. Feel free to send any comments or complaints to news@soccersam.com. James promises to read (but not to respond) to all of them.
